“I found them. It didn’t take long, less than a month. Bess and I had a special connection Alexander couldn’t understand.”
“Because she’d made you.”
His piercing blue eyes swung to me. “Yes. That’s right. Alexander couldn’t understand that bond. His mother committed suicide to escape him, you see, so he took mine.” His gaze drifted again. “I knew what he was about long before he stole her away. I’d seen them together. I’d seen the liberties he took with her, the things they did together, things that made her weep when I took those same liberties. When I found them I watched in secret for weeks, horrified to see their betrayal was far worse than I imagined. He’d twisted her mind so abhorrently that when I tried to save her from him she…attacked me. I couldn’t allow such treachery to go unanswered. I promised them that much. Twenty years is nothing for an immortal, but the fool never knew it was me, never entertained the possibility. He never knew I’d returned.”
“Revenge then.”
His gaze met mine. “Is it? I don’t think so. I felt sorry for my Bess. Sorry she couldn’t see Alexander for what he was, sorry she couldn’t break free of his mind tricks. It was my fault. I should’ve protected her. I should’ve killed Alexander the moment he stepped into our lives.”
“Ah…I see.” Something told me we’d just hit midnight on the crazy clock. Time for all sane girls and boys to start running. “I’ll be sure to point that out in my story, but I’ve gotta get to the office now and type it up. So…” I edged backwards toward the door.
“Do you think I don’t know?” His powerful voice stopped me in my tracks. “Alexander couldn’t hide the truth from me back then and he can’t now. I’ve waited all this time, waited for him to choose another, to claim another as his. I knew he would. After you’re gone, he’ll do it again. And I’ll be there.”
“Right. Insanity it is.”
He was on me before the breath to speak left my lips. To say vamps are fast is a huge, huge understatement. He was just suddenly behind me, his body flush with mine, his hand clamped on my chin, his other hand twisting my arm up my back.
“Genius,” he said, “is often mistaken for insanity.”
“Yeah. By crazy people.” Crap. I gave myself a mental slap for not keeping my stupid mouth shut a half second before he jerked my chin back, stretching my neck, yanking my arm impossibly high behind me. I tried not to cry out, but I couldn’t help it.
“You’re probably right about that.” His lips brushed my ear, his breath washing over my cheek and neck. A shiver shook across my shoulders at the feel of it. “The insane think themselves geniuses and geniuses often question their sanity. Funny thing. I don’t care either way.”
His inhale cooled over my skin before pinpricks jabbed my neck. I’d have gasped, complained about the pinch, except it was gone too quickly and what replaced it was too delicious to interrupt with words. I don’t remember seeing fangs, just sharp canines maybe a little longer than normal but not enough to pick out of a crowd. Still I felt it when they pulled back out of my flesh, when the suction of his mouth drew my blood through the holes they’d left. But I didn’t care.
Heat rippled through my body, loosening muscle, stirring desire. My mind swam with a confusing mix of thoughts—escape, sweet sensation, death, sex…Alex. It was only a flash, the barest whisper of his name but it was enough to gather my will despite the liquid need coursing through my veins.
I called my power. The fine hairs at the back of my neck tingled, power rushing over me like a summer breeze. The drawn energy hummed through my head, shaking loose the venom’s tempting hold. I still wanted Octavius. I wanted him sucking on my neck. I wanted him touching my body. I wanted him between my legs pounding into me. But I also wanted the crazy asswipe the hell off me.
My brain gave my body a command—move, squirm, break free. Problem. My body wasn’t responding. Even as realization crystallized in my head, my knees buckled. Shoot. I’d already lost too much blood or had too much venom. Maybe a combo of both.
Octavius broke the vacuum seal he had on my neck, gasping. He let me go and I slid down his body to my knees. My head wobbled on my neck and I managed to let it fall forward, chin to my chest, without falling over. Damn, I was whipped. My mind hummed with power, energy zinging along my skin, but my body felt like I’d swum a thousand miles and then been dipped in tar, clothes and all. Everything about me was tired and heavy. Even speaking took effort, but it was my only chance.
I pushed all my power into my voice, willing Octavius to obey me. “You should let me go. Leave now before someone comes and discovers you. You want to leave me here…now.”
The sound of Octavius stumbling backward was the only way I knew my power had some kind of affect. I couldn’t lift my head, couldn’t turn to see. Not that it mattered. It didn’t last.
“What is that?” he said. “Is that you? Are you trying to…trying to mind fuck me…like a human?”
I wouldn’t have used those words, but they worked for me. Power still swirled through my head behind the dull throb at my temple. “Maybe you should leave before my power overcomes you, Octavius. Maybe you should get away while you still can.”
“Nonsensical female.” He jerked me to my feet by my shoulders, held my back against his chest and spoke close to my ear. “You tried that the other night at my restaurant, didn’t you? You may have pushed the minds of a few fledglings, Sophie, but I’m more than two hundred years old. You’re nothing more than a buzzing at my ear. Like a firefly I’ll squash when I have a mind to.”
I tried to stand on my own, to lock my knees but my legs just wouldn’t obey. Maddening sensation, having the presence of mind but lacking the strength of body to enact the thought. He spun me around, his strong fingers bruising my arms, then flung me over his shoulder, fireman style.
I watched my apartment floor pass beneath us as he carried me to the kitchen, to the window that led to the fire escape, helpless. A moment later we were airborne.
“Where are you taking me?” Visions of dark alleys, and bus stops and cars parked in lonely parking lots flashed through my head. Would I be the next victim the police would find? Would he pose me in some bizarre macabre scene?
And then it hit me. I already was the next victim, the rest was just for show.
The upside to being carried across town slung over the shoulder of a crazy vampire is the blood—what’s left—goes to your brain. By the time we landed on the roof of Sinners restaurant, I was perfectly clear headed. And in my clear headedness I realized Alex had been right. Octavius couldn’t drain me by himself. Not that I could do anything about it. My body was still limp as a wet noodle. Well not really that bad, but close. I could walk, mostly, with Octavius’s help.
Holding my arm looped around his shoulder and his other hand braced around my back, he led me through a rooftop door, down a small flight of steps through another door and into an office. He made like he’d drop me onto the leather couch next to the door, but something outside the office, in the restaurant below, caught his attention. It was past three in the morning. The place should’ve been closed. But when he opened his fancy wooden office door, I heard it too.
We stepped into the short hallway just as a man dressed in a white tux shirt and bowtie, black cummerbund and slacks—no jacket—stepped around the corner. I knew him, but from where—the spiky platinum blond hair, the tiny brown eyes, little head, broad shoulders, small waist.
“Master, there you are. Thank God,” the man said.
“Hey. You’re Todd.” My voice was raw, too soft. It felt like I had sandpaper caught in my throat. I swallowed. It didn’t help. “You were at Il Piccolo Morso.”
Todd glanced at me for a half second. But for the most part they both ignored me. That’s how Octavius knew what was going on at Alex’s place. That’s how he knew about me.
“What’s going on?” Octavius asked.
We rounded the end of the hall and stepped out onto a landing that overlooked the resta
urant below. The place was trashed, tables overturned, broken dishes, silverware all over the place.
“He just showed up and started yellin’ about wanting to see you. He was smashing tables and slicing up some of the art. And when Jim tried to stop him, he…he cut off his head.”
Octavius snapped his gaze to Todd and Todd stared at the floor. “Jim’s…Jim’s dead,” Todd said.
My belly tightened. Who was Jim? Was he a vampire or a human servant? Or a human servant turned vampire? Did it matter? The poor guy was dead. What kind of crazy man goes around cutting off people’s heads?
“Where is he?” Octavius asked.
“In the kitchen.”
Just as he said it a loud clatter echoed through the room from the double swinging doors to the kitchen. We turned and Octavius half led, half carried me down the steps to the main floor of the restaurant. He took me to the bar and kind of leaned me against a stool.
He looked to Todd who’d followed close at our heels. “Drain her,” he said then walked away.
The speed at which Todd moved to catch me before I melted to the floor told me he was definitely a vamp. I saw the mark on his wrist and caught a glimpse of one beneath the stiff collar of his shirt. He was still a fledging. Did he know that mark on his wrist would never go away? Who cared? He was going to kill me.
Lucky for me, Todd couldn’t seem to tear himself from the distraction in the kitchen and rather than follow his master’s orders immediately, he turned us both to watch.
The right side door swung open with Octavius only two steps away. He flinched back a step, eyes wide as Alex stormed through the doorway toward him. I blinked, not sure I was seeing things right. Alex’s right hand clutched the hilt of a long sword and his other fisted a hairy bowling ball at his thigh. No. It wasn’t a bowling ball. It was a head. Jim?
Alex’s gaze met Octavius almost instantly, and he dropped the head. The wet thunk when it hit the floor and subsequent thwap, thwap, thwap as it rolled under a table nearly made me puke.
Alex double-fisted his sword, holding it at the ready. “So it is you.”
Octavius swallowed his surprise quickly. “You had doubt?”
“You killed those women, risked exposing all of us…why?”
“Why?” Octavius seemed to fight a laugh but ultimately failed, the sound of it pinged through the room. It wasn’t a happy sound. “You think I care about our kind? You think I care about those women? There was only one woman, Alexander. One woman, you and your selfish arrogance destroyed.”
He lowered his sword, affected by the anguish etched on Octavius’s face. “Elizabeth.”
“Yes.” The word slithered past his lips like a hiss. “You should’ve suffered for her death.”
“I did. I do still.”
“Not enough.” Anger raised his voice. “Never enough for taking her from me. For killing her.”
Alex blinked at that, confusion pulling his brows tight. “I didn’t kill Elizabeth, Octavius. I could never…even seeing how she suffered, how little of the vibrant woman we once knew was left filling the shell of her body… Even then I could never harm her, couldn’t bring myself to end her misery.”
“Your actions killed her. Your lies, your seductions,” Octavius said. “You set her against me. Made her…made her…mutilate me.”
Alex’s brow tightened, a darkness filling his blue eyes. “No, Octavius. What Elizabeth did to you had nothing to do with me. As much as I despised you for the damage you caused her, I wouldn’t have wished that on you, on any man. Death would’ve been punishment enough.”
“Death wasn’t near punishment enough for you. You deserved to suffer. An eternity of lonely suffering is still not enough punishment for turning her against me, for what you made me do.”
“What, Octavius?” Alex took a steady careful step forward, his grip readjusting around the hilt of his sword. “What did I make you do?”
“For making me…making me take her from this world.”
Alex flinched with a small shake of his head as though he couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “You? No. You wouldn’t. Elizabeth was staked through the heart. You—”
“He was there, Alex. He told me so. He did come find the two of you after she cut him,” I said before Todd clamped a hand over my mouth.
“I did,” Octavius said. “I saw the two of you, the life you made. The way you took comfort in her, in your pathetic fledglings. What right did you have to comfort when I suffered so?”
“Markus, Anthony and Richard weren’t fledglings. They were friends.” Alex took another measured step closer to Octavius. “They would’ve died on the battlefield if I hadn’t turned them. Instead they returned to me of their own accord fifteen years after they were weaned, as friends, only to die at the hand of an arsonist as they slept. I thought…I believed their death was the work of slayers.”
“No.” A crazed smile tugged the corner of his mouth. “You fool. I only allowed you to think that. I took them from you, Alexander. I took all of them from you, everything in this world that gave you comfort, joy or love. Just as you did to me.”
“You drove her to madness,” Alex said. “I didn’t take her from you. I saved her from ending her life.”
“No.” Octavius leapt backwards onto the bar, then reached for the decorative swords crisscrossed on the wall behind it. Sharp metal zinged from the sheath as he pulled. “Bess and I were perfect before you came. You confused her. Turned her head, corrupted her just as you did this one.” He swung the point of the sword toward me in gesture.
Three heavy heartbeats passed, each of us clicking through the logic to what comes next. Octavius shifted his gaze to Todd, still holding my back against his chest, his hand clamped over my mouth. He pulled the ring off his finger and tossed it to Todd.
“Drain her. Then mark her like the others,” he said, then launched himself at Alex.
Todd jerked my head back, so I could only hear the clash of metal against metal. I heard tables overturning, the crash of dishes, the rush of footsteps and grunts of effort. From the corner of my eye, I caught Todd’s rapt expression, dazed by the two powerful vampires in battle.
“You had me worried, Alexander.” Octavius’s words came unsteady and clipped between the clangs and clatter of their sword fight. “I watched you for years after I found you again in the Americas. I thought you’d truly gone mad, drinking animal blood, indulging in a meaningless poke now and again without the blood lust. You twisted masochistic fuck. What’s the point? Did you think that would work? You think I would fall for that?”
“I don’t give a damn,” Alex said before a loud clash of metal and a sharp squealing retreat from Octavius.
“I knew you couldn’t deny yourself forever. I knew you’d abandon your self-imposed punishment like it was nothing—meant nothing. You couldn’t stop yourself from seeking comfort and love from another woman eventually. You didn’t love Bess enough. And I was right.” He paused then said loudly in our direction. “Kill her damn it. Now.”
Todd flinched at Octavius’s yelled command, and stretched my head back, lowering his mouth to my neck. Before he could make contact I clamped my teeth down on the inside of his palm.
“Ouch. You bit me,” he said, shaking the sting from his hand.
“You were going to bite me.”
“Still am, bitch.” He grabbed for my head again but I called my power fast. The flood of energy gave him a jolt, like static electricity, when his hand came too close to the back of my neck. He jerked his hand away.
“Hey,” Todd whined.
“Why don’t you go stake yourself?”
Todd blinked, shook his head as though he was trying to clear his thoughts, turned and walked around to the other side of the bar. He disappeared for a second as he bent for something underneath, then came back up with an ice pick. I didn’t have time to think, let alone say anything, before he plunged the stupid thing right into his heart, all the way to the hilt.
Apparently thi
s was yet another area where the media has gone astray in vampire lore. Doesn’t matter who you are or what it’s made of, if you jam something into your heart, destroying the organ…you’re gonna die.
I turned back to the battle still waging in the main dining floor and my foot kicked something. I glanced down and saw the ring. I grabbed it, staring at the closed “X” symbol, like a flattened infinity sign, just like the one on the dead girl’s necks. I pushed it onto my thumb and swung my gaze to Alex just in time to see the bloodied blade of his sword connect with Octavius’s neck.
I’d never seen anyone decapitated before. And with such a quick clean cut. Octavius didn’t fall right away. He stood there staring in the same direction he’d been looking when Alex cut him. He was staring at me.
He blinked twice then said, “He’ll never love you enough to kill you.”
Octavius’s knees buckled and he slumped to the floor like a deflated balloon. His head rolled under a chair when it hit the floor, the eyes still open. Eewww…creepy on toast.
Alex was at my side before Octavius’s nose stopped the roll, hooked on the chair leg. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I’m good. I’m fine.” I smiled at his worry, almost laughed, but I think it was more like one of those hysterical laughter urges than a flash of humor. This was sooo not funny.
“You’re too pale.” He wasn’t smiling. He jerked my head to the side to see my neck. “That mark’s too dark. How do you feel?”
“Uh…I’m not thirsty. That’s good, right?”
Alex flicked his gaze to mine, some of his hard-edged warrior persona softening. “Yeah. That’s good. I’m going to take you to the hospital though. You might need a transfusion.”
“What’ll we tell them?”
He shrugged. “The truth. The ER doctor is a…friend. You’re going to need a few weeks rest, lots of vitamins.”
“What about all this?” I nodded toward the head by the kitchen door and Octavius’s body on the other side of the room. “Too bad they don’t go poof like they do in the movies.”
Gifted: Obey Me Page 9
